Christian Lundgaard is the son of 2000 European Rally champion, Henrik Lundgaard, so he was brought up around racing. The Dane worked his way up through the karting ranks at an early age, winning the 2015 CIK-FIA Euro Karting FJ Championship with Ward Racing at the age of 14.

After another year in karts he was selected to become a member of the Renault Sport Academy and for 2017 he was placed with MP Motorsports contesting both the Spanish and SMP Formula 4 championships.

For the 2018 season he stayed with MP Motorsport but moved up to the very competitive Formula Renault 2.0 category, racing in both the Eurocup and NEC championships. He also made an appearance in GP3 at the two rounds held at Paul Ricard in June.

Although he took a pole, a fastest lap and two second places at the opening NEC round doubleheader at Pau, he skipped the next round at Monza and when he returned the rest of the season was disappointing. Lungaard finished in 11th position.

The Eurocup was a different story entirely with the Dane scoring 4 wins (plus 6 more podium finishes), 4 poles and 3 fastest laps to finish second in the championship and win Rookie of the Year.

At the end of the season it was announced that Lungaard will test with ART Grand Prix, presumably ahead of a 2019 drive in the newly revamped FIA Formula 3 Championship.

The fifth ABB FIA Formula E Championship season kicks off this weekend with the Ad Diriyah ePrix, around the streets of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. There will be 12 more races between now and July 2019 when the season ends in New York City.

The Cars

This season sees the introduction of the “Gen2” car, the Spark SRT05e, which ups the power output (25% more in qualifying and 10% more during the race) and finally allows the drivers to complete the race distance without the stupid car swaps during pit-stops. They also look WAY cooler!

Formula E Gen 2 car

The Races

Another change for this year is that all races will run for 45 minutes, plus one lap. This could make for some exciting finishes as teams will not know for sure how many laps will be run and drivers will need to be even more mindful of their remaining energy store.

As well as the popular “Fan Boost”, where fans vote to give their favorite driver some extra power, this year sees the introduction of “Attack Mode” which is full on Mario Kart! The driver goes off the racing line in a designated area and is rewarded with a temporary 25kW engine boost.

The Teams

Manufacturers are embracing Formula E with the number of teams increasing for the 2018-19 season, with HWA joining before becoming the Mercedes works team in season six. BMW now partners Andretti Motorsport and Nissan takes over the Renault entry. Porsche will also be joining, fielding a works team in the 2019-2020 season.

The Drivers

Reigning champion Jean-Éric Vergne defends his title against a field of talented drivers. Notable names joining the driver ranks this season include former F1 pilots, Stoffel Vandoorne, Felipe Massa and Pascal Wehrlein, as well as 2018 DTM champion, Gary Paffett.